Hardware Development

Warthman Associates has developed two audio synthesizers, called
Box #1 and Box #2, based on an Intel neural-network chip. The chip
was developed by Mark Holler's group at Intel. Warthman Associates
wrote technical documentation about this chip for Intel (see the 80170NX
Electrically Trainable Neural Network Data Sheet and the 80170NX
Neural Network Solutions Brochure). Forrest Warthman (Warthman
Associates), Mark Holler (Intel), and Mark Thorson (Warthman Associates)
developed the first neural-network audio synthesizer in their spare
time. The synthesizer is described in a February, 1993, Dr.
Dobbs Journal article written by Forrest, Mark, and Mark.
Later, Mark Holler and Forrest developed a second synthesizer.

The photo below, taken at Warthman Associates' office
in 1992, shows our Box #1 synthesizer during a demonstration. The
people in the photo, left to right, are Mark Holler (Intel), Fred
Waldhauer (AT&T Bell Labs), John
Cage (Merce Cunningham
Dance Company), and Forrest Warthman.

Box #1 had its world premier concert at the old Paris
Opera House, November, 1992, in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's
world premier of Enter, with choreography by Merce Cunningham
and music by David
Tudor, the dance company's musical director. The program cover
for that performance is shown below.

The two photos below shows Forrest Warthman and David
Tudor (top) and Mark Holler and David Tudor (bottom) with our Box
#1 synthesizer in the orchestra pit at the City Center Theater,
New York, 1993. Our synthesizer is on the right side of the bottom
photo, with the red-plugged cables.

The photo below shows Box #2, our second neural-network
synthesizer, during development at Forrest's office in Palo Alto,
The box uses multiple analog neural-network chips developed by
Mark's group at Intel (and visible on the left side of the chassis).
Control is exercised through an analog control panel (bottom-right
corner of photo), patch-cable connectors on the rear of the chassis,
and a real-time weight-setting program running on a host computer.